hymns

[smurfie1]

When you sang hymns in assembly, how did you read the words?

When I first started school two older children had to stand at the front and hold up a giant hymn sheet with the words on for us all to read. This was ok but I had only just started school so couldn't read. I had some intresting words to Lord of the dance.
After a couple of years we had progressed to an OHP.
Then I moved areas and my new school had hymn books - Junior Praise.

[Heather74]

In Primary school children were chosen to hold big cards with the words written on by the teacher and in high school we had a two double sided A4 cards, one for every day and the other full of festival type songs, which had to be passed along the rows.
In most assemblies it was turned into a boy girl competition to see who could sing the loudest, me I couldn't sing a note so I just mimed

[Marine Boy]

...Then I moved areas and my new school had hymn books - Junior Praise.

Were they the ones with the swirly blue and green lines on the front? If so, that's what we used from about 1969 to 1973/4. I recently discovered something very similar, (trying to recall the title) in a local church and a slight thrill went through me.

Otherwise, especially when singing more modern hymns, it was the overhead projector. The words were usually handwritten. (Bit different to the downloading and interactive whiteboards we have in the school where I work at the moment!)

On Friday mornings we had hymn practise for the hymns we would be singing the following week. At the end there was usually time for requests. I think 'When a Knight Won his Spurs' was favourite, with 'Lord of the Dance' coming a close second. I also recall 'Oh Jesus I have Promised' - to the modern bouncy tune, and 'As Jacob with Travel'.

[Solo]

Ahh I loved the songs we used to sing in assembly, from a blue "Come and Praise" book - the ones I can remember are:

When I Needed a Neighbour (we all giggled during the "I was cold, I was naked" part)
Autumn Days(?)
Lord of the Dance
Kumbayah
He's Got the Whole World In His Hands

looooads more that I can't remember now! And I loved Christmas time, we had a different book and just sang carols...aaah, magical!!

[Marine Boy]

...When I Needed a Neighbour (we all giggled during the "I was cold, I was naked" part)...

You just reminded me; we giggled too! I expect most kids did, come to think of it.

There was a song that went, "We are travelling on a journey," and all the children would repeat 'journey' a second time as there was a space for it in the music. It used to drive the music teacher to distraction. She just couldn't stop us! lol

[Richard1978]

At primary school we sang hymns almost every day in assembly.

I remember liking some hymns more than others, some of them had potential to mess around a bit & pretend you misread the OHP. Luckily I never needed to use that excuse.

With Lord Of The Dance I sometimes tried to end the lines with an ee sound notes that Mariah Carey would struggle with.

There was the hymn with the line ending King Of Kings, with another line at the end of the verse ending with just King, but most people kept getting that wrong.

While I never got caught singing things wrong, I remember one teacher complaining that some pupils were just badly mouthing along, like a "tank of goldfish"!

Memorable mis-sings winclude "When At Knight Won At Spurs" & "Oh Lord, Come By Car".

Some songs that aren't really hymns used to be features including Yellow Submarine (often mis-sung as yellow washing machine) & The Ink Is Black, The Page Is White" (which I came up with a cheeky resung version).

At secondry school we didn't bother with hymns in assembly, apart from one time we had to sing London's Burning for about 10 minutes non-stop for no obvious reason.

[Heather74]

There was the hymn with the line ending King Of Kings, with another line at the end of the verse ending with just King, but most people kept getting that wrong.

We sang that one too... Give me joy in my heart ( sing hosanna)

[Solo]

The Ink Is Black, The Page Is White" (which I came up with a cheeky resung version).

Ahh yeah! I loved that one - at the end of the chorus when it went "together we learn to read and write, to read and write" we would all yell out "DOOPY-DOOP-DOOP-DOOP" and it drove our teacher nuts!

At secondry school we didn't bother with hymns in assembly, apart from one time we had to sing London's Burning for about 10 minutes non-stop for no obvious reason.

You didn't go to a school in North Yorkshire did you? I did the same thing with London's Burning (at primary school at the time), I think it was some sort of radio thing a lot of schools took part in? Talk about a waste of time!!

[Marine Boy]

...At secondry school we didn't bother with hymns in assembly, apart from one time we had to sing London's Burning for about 10 minutes non-stop for no obvious reason.

Don't recall having to sing that, but at secondary school, I experienced the same thing as you. We just didn't seem to sing like we did in primary. On the odd occasion there was a song or hymn, hardly anybody joined in and I think the teachers just gave up.

I remember a new music teacher arriving, Mrs Yendol, (sp?). She was very enthusiastic, determined to turn things round and get us all singing. My memory is that even she failed.

[Richard1978]

Ahh yeah! I loved that one - at the end of the chorus when it went "together we learn to read and write, to read and write" we would all yell out "DOOPY-DOOP-DOOP-DOOP" and it drove our teacher nuts!


You didn't go to a school in North Yorkshire did you? I did the same thing with London's Burning (at primary school at the time), I think it was some sort of radio thing a lot of schools took part in? Talk about a waste of time!!

Mine rewrite had the lines "Together we learn to scream & bite, scheme & fight", "Now the end of the world has just begun, so let's bring out the worst in everyone, everyone"!

I'm not sure if I actually dared to sing them in assembly, but I remember attempting to hit very high notes at the end of some lines, like I did with Lord Of The Dance.

I was at Marple Hall School when we sang London's Burning ad nauseum.